August 3rd, 2005
BGAN coverage hole over West Africa
Since the switch over to the new Inmarsat-4 F-1 Satellite BGAN satphones can now be used all the way down to South Africa which is good news. But the switch has also left a gaping coverage hole over parts of West Africa (plus northern England and Portugal) that will only be filled once the Inmarsat-4 F-2 satellite becomes operational over the Americas sometime in 2005/2006. Until that happens, it seems that you will not be able to use BGANs in these West African countries:
Western Sahara - Mauritania - Senegal - Mali - Guinea - Gambia - Guinea-Bissau - Sierra Leone - Liberia
